Dr Ross McHenry is a multi-award-winning, critically acclaimed composer and electric bassist whose work reflects the unique and changing cultural landscape of Australian creative music. Broaching the fields of jazz, chamber music and electronic music practice, Ross’ work takes place at the leading edge of contemporary improvised music and explores relationships between improvisation, composition, curation, studio production and performance.
Based in Adelaide, Ross has built a global reputation based on significant international collaborations and major performances with leading artists across Australia and around the world. Ross has been recognized through major awards including the 2019 APRA AMCOS Art Music Award for Excellence in Jazz, the 2020 APRA AMCOS Art Music State Luminary Award and the 2020 Arts South Australia Ruby Award for Best Work Outside a Festival. Ross has performed at leading arts festivals including Glastonbury, The Sydney Festival, The Adelaide Festival, The Falls Festival, Splendour in the Grass, Wellington International Jazz Festival and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and leading venues including the Melbourne Recital Centre and Ronnie Scotts.
Ross is a key contributor to the South Australian, and broader Australian music sector through the creation and release of significant new works, leading collaborations, research and advocacy. Ross is an Australian Music Centre Associate Artist and holds a PhD in jazz composition from the Elder Conservatorium of Music. Alongside his creative practice Ross is a highly respected theatre producer, arts manager and cultural sector advocate and is the current Executive Director of Windmill Theatre Company.
“Brilliance in abundance (…) unremitting power and virtuosity (…) McHenry is creating his own oevre”
THE AUSTRALIAN (2020)
"withering brilliance and overpowering musicality"
"the spirit of Jaco Pastorius is alive in McHenry’s playing"
THE AUSTRALIAN (2017)
Superb musicianship (…) McHenry gives each piece a distinctive arc, with enough room to tell a compelling story that repays re-listening
ALL ABOUT JAZZ
Like (Keith) Jarrett, McHenry succeeds in being easy on the ear without sacrificing complexity. The best of his compositions function like journeys, often arriving at destinations far from where they started (…McHenry is) a talent deserving of our attention.
RHYTHMS MAGAZINE
“The Future of Australian Jazz”
PBS FM
"Absurdly Prolific"
SCENESTR MAGAZINE
"Explosions of color, disciplined dynamics, and glorious rhythmic invention (…) a mysterious, joyous amalgam of unified sounds that doesn't so much reflect musical traditions as explore the untended spaces around and beyond them"
ALLMUSIC.COM
"VERY VERY NICE!"
WORLDWIDE FM / BOILER ROOM
"McHenry's got a style that's visionary"
DUSTY GROOVE
"A formidable force in modern Australian jazz"
EAST SIDE RADIO
“Ross McHenry is a musician of immense talent and vision”
SOUND COLOUR VIBRATION
AWARDS
Winner Jazz/Art Music Award 2017, South Australian Music Awards
Recipient Marten Bequest scholarship 2017
Winner best Jazz Artist Fowlers Live Music Awards 2014 (Now known as South Australian Music Awards)
Winner achievement award for contribution to SA music, Fowlers Live Music Awards 2014
Releases
As a solo artist
The Outsiders (First Word Records 2017)
Child of Somebody (First Word Records 2016)
Distant Oceans (First Word Records 2013)
With Shaolin Afronauts
Follow the Path (Freestyle Records 2014)
Quest Under Capricorn (Freestyle Records 2012)
Flight of the Ancients (Freestyle Records 2011)